Parastoo Ahmadi and her band will also be barred from leaving the country or performing for two years, dampening hopes for a more moderate postwar regime in Iran.

Two Belarusian men were in custody as part of an investigation into the killing of the exiled painter Robert Kuzovkov.

Health workers have warned that the outbreak, already one of the worst in decades, could take as long as a year to contain if infection rates do not flatten.